BATON ROUGE, La. – A federal class action lawsuit has been filed challenging a state law mandating “conviction fees” as the revenue source for the salaries of the judge and support staff in Ascension Parish.
“Relying on fees assessed only on convictions to pay judicial salaries creates a clear conflict of interest, and the U.S. Supreme Court has found similar court funding schemes violate defendants’ constitutional rights to due process,” said Eric Foley, staff attorney at the New Orleans office of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center. The non-profit, public interest law firm filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge.
In Ascension Parish Court, people convicted of misdemeanor crimes—including traffic and municipal ordinance violations—are charged a fee of $15. This “conviction fee” is deposited into the court’s Judicial Expense Fund and used to pay part of the Judge’s salary, retirement, and benefits. The Judicial Expense Fund also pays the salaries of most of the Parish Court’s staff and other operating expenses.
“The law creating the funding scheme for the Ascension Parish Court clearly violates the Fourteenth Amendment” Foley said. “A defendant in the Ascension Parish Court is forced to appear before a judge whose livelihood depends, in large part, on a fee the judge can collect only when she convicts defendants. It’s a perverse incentive.
“This kind of system presents too much temptation for a judge, now or in the future, to be influenced by the need to fund court operations by convicting defendants,” Foley said. “It’s just one of the more egregious examples of Louisiana’s neglect of the responsibility to fully fund the judicial system. How many people brought before the Parish Court on traffic violations or other minor infractions realize that, in addition to their fine, they’ll also be paying for the judge’s salary and retirement benefits? If they knew that, would most people think they were receiving a fair and unbiased determination of their guilt or innocence?”
In addition to Judge Marilyn Lambert, the other defendants in the suit are: Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeffrey F. Wiley, who collects conviction fees on behalf of the Parish, the city of Donaldsonville, and the Town of Sorrento; Gonzales Police Chief Sherman Jackson, who collects conviction fees on behalf of the City of Gonzales; and Clerk of Ascension Parish Court Bridget Hanna, who deposits these fees into the Judicial Expense Fund and administers the fund.
The lawsuit requests a declaratory judgment that the practice in Ascension Parish violates the constitutional rights of the class and a court order enjoining Wiley, Jackson, and Hanna from collecting and depositing the conviction fee.
The proposed class is represented by attorneys from the MacArthur Justice Center. Richard Williams is a resident of Gonzales and the lead plaintiff in the class action suit. Mr. Williams has a case in the Parish Court after receiving a citation for a nuisance allegedly created by his dogs’ barking.
A copy of the lawsuit is available HERE»